"I  , 


he 


Impacfl  of  the  We^ 
Upon  the 
Mu^  be 
Chri^iai 


By  Rob 


, . ^Or*“-xc-.--'‘®^’ 


LAYMEN’S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 
1 Madison  Avenue 
New  York 


THE  IMPACT  OF  THE  WEST  UPON  THE 
EAST  MUST  BE  CHRISTIANIZED.* 


Robert  E.  Speer. 


The  impact  of  the  West  upon  the  East  must  be 
Christianized.  We  imply,  then,  that  it  has  not  been 
Christian.  Are  we  prepared  to  admit  that?  Without 
qualification,  some  of  us  are  not  prepared  to  do  so. 
We  believe  that  the  net  result  of  the  dealings  of  the 
so-called  Christian  nations  with  the  non-Christian 
world,  with  all  the  evil  that  has  seamed  and  defaced 
that  contact,  has  been  for  good.  We  believe  this  for 
two  reasons : First,  because  we  believe  in  God  and 
that  God  has  been  governing  the  world,  and  that  He 
has  not  allowed  these  relations  between  the  different 
races  of  men  without  Himself  participating  in  those 
relationships,  and  seeing  to  it  that  the  great  purposes 
of  good  which  He  had  formed  for  men  were  not 
altogether  frustrated.  We  are  sure  that  in  spite  of 
the  evil  that  we  see  through  the  world,  the  develop- 
ment of  man’s  life  has  not  slipped  between  the  fingers 
of  God,  and  that  in  the  ages  past  He  has  been  leading 
on  His  world. 

We  believe  it  in  the  second  place  because  we  can 
see  all  over  the  non-Christian  world  the  penetrating 
and  creative  influence  of  great  Christian  principles.  It 
is  not  the  same  heathen  world  on  which  we  look  out 
to-day  that  our  fathers  looked  out  on  one  hundred 
years  ago.  Great  Christian  principles  of  morality, 
equality  and  justice  and  its  new  idea  of  God  have 
been  slowly  making  their  way  into  the  thought  of 


*An  address  at  the  Meo’s  National  Missionary  Congress,  Chicago,  May,  1910, 


2 The  Impact  of  the  West  Upon  the  East 


mankind,  and  deeply  as  we  lament  all  the  evil  that 
has  defaced  our  past  relations  with  the  East,  we  still 
rejoice  that  God  has  overruled  this,  and  that  we  our- 
selves can  see  the  slow  fashioning  of  the  nations 
to  a better  and  truer  life. 

But  when  we  have  said  this,  then  we  are  pre- 
pared to  admit  that  there  are  still,  as  there  have  been 
in  all  the  years,  great  non-Christian  elements  in  the 
impact  of  the  West  upon  the  East  which  must  be 
Christianized.  We  recognize  clearly,  and  confess  with 
shame,  that  in  our  political  impact  upon  the  non- 
Christian  world  there  have  been  radically  non- 
Christian  elements.  There  is  no  time  here  this  morn- 
ing to  make  the  detailed  confession.  Those  great 
wrongs  from  which  the  Chinese  Empire  suffered  be- 
fore the  Boxer  uprising  are  a sufficient  evidence  of 
the  non-Christian  character  of  much  of  our  dealing 
with  the  non-Christian  world. 

I recall  an  article  in  the  Nippon  Shimbun  com- 
menting on  the  curious  notions  of  humanity  and 
honesty  displayed  by  the  West  toward  China  in  the 
proceedings  which  led  up  to  the  Boxer  storm.  The 
Japan  Mail  summarized  the  article  at  the  time: 

“The  ethics  of  Westerners  are  to  the  Nippon  very 
inexplicable.  It  proceeds  to  quote  Chwang  tze  on  the 
European  politicians.  The  sage  was  asked  whether 
morality  existed  among  thieves.  He  replied  much  as 
follows:  Ts  there  any  place  morality  does  not  exist? 
The  five  virtues  are  all  exemplified  by  thieves.  In 
perceiving  that  there  are  treasures  in  people’s  houses 
they  show  sagacity.  In  each  striving  to  be  first  to 
get  into  a house  they  display  courage.  In  not  striving 
to  be  the  first  to  escape  from  a house  they  show  a 
regard  for  what  is  right.  In  determining  whether  a 
house  should  be  entered  or  not  they  display  intelli- 


Must  be  Christianized 


3 


gence ; and  in  the  consideration  they  show  to  each 
other  in  dividing  the  spoil  they  display  benevolence. 
Without  these  five  virtues  no  big  robbery  would  suc- 
ceed.’ This  applies  to  the  doings  of  Europeans  on  the 
neighboring  continent.  If  this  conduct  is  to  be  the 
standard  of  humanity,  a pretty  low  level  will  be 
reached.” 

And  Dr.  Kato,  of  the  Imperial  University  in 
Tokyo,  discussing  at  the  same  time  the  evolution  of 
morality  and  the  law,  held  that  the  example  of  Western 
states  shows  that  they  do  not  recognize  any  universal 
ethical  principles,  and  are  indeed  unqualifiedly  un- 
Christian  in  their  dealing  with  alien  nations. 

When  a great  empire  had  practically  not  a single 
port  left  in  which  she  could  anchor  her  own  fleet  along 
thousands  of  miles  of  seacoast  without  getting  the 
consent  of  a foreign  power ; when  she  heard  the  whole 
world  talking  about  her  dismemberment  and  the  parti- 
tion of  her  territory  among  foreign  nations,  we  can- 
not wonder  that  that  nation  and  the  neighboring 
nations  failed  to  discern  in  the  political  attitude  of 
the  West  a Christian  spirit  toward  the  non-Christian 
world. 

In  the  second  place,  there  have  been  in  our  trade 
impact  on  the  non-Christian  world,  great  un-Christian 
elements.  One  needs  only  to  recall  the  slave  traffic, 
thank  God,  a thing  of  the  past  now,  but  with  its 
memories  still  living.  One  needs  only  to  remember 
that  little  canoe  drifting  out  from  shore  to  sea  in 
which  the  body  of  Coleridge  Patterson  was  lying  with 
five  wounds  upon  it,  like  the  wounds  upon  his  Master’s 
body,  and  two  fronds  of  palm  crossed  upon  his  breast, 
an  expression  of  the  wrath  of  the  South  Sea  Islanders 
against  the  Christian  traffic  in  human  flesh,  to  realize 
with  shame  the  devilish  elements  that  have  stained 


4 The  Impact  of  the  West  Upon  the  East 


much  of  our  intercourse  with  the  non-Christian  world. 
And  there  are  still  the  opium  trade  with  China  and 
the  rum  traffic  with  Africa. 

In  the  third  place,  there  have  been  non-Christian 
elements  in  our  personal  impact  upon  the  non-Chris- 
tian world.  Some  of  you  have  doubtless  read  recently 
a very  interesting  but  a very  sad  book  written  by  a 
graduate  of  one  of  our  Western  universities,  who  went 
on  a tramp  around  the  world,  and  who,  penniless, 
made  his  way  across  Europe  and  across  Asia  and  back 
to  the  United  States  again,  right  down  on  the  bones 
of  life  over  all  the  world.  I say  it  is  interesting  be- 
cause any  such  experience  would  inevitably  be  interest- 
ing; but  also  it  is  sad  because  of  the  instances  of 
the  domineering  assertion  of  the  sense  of  racial 
superiority,  and  of  the  way  in  which  Western  men  by 
the  thousands  have  gone  out  over  the  Eastern  world 
and  have  affronted  the  fundamental  principles  of 
human  brotherhood  and  equality.  Again  and  again 
our  personal  touch  with  the  non-Christian  world  has 
been  radically  un-Christian.  I cite  but  one  other 
illustration,  of  which  I was  reminded  the  other  day, 
of  a dinner  given  by  the  French  Consul  in  a certain 
Chinese  city,  where,  after  the  French  Government  had 
opened  a hospital  for  the  purpose  of  conciliating  the 
people,  the  Consul  invited  a number  of  guests  to  a 
dinner,  and  behind  every  guest’s  chair  he  had  thought- 
fully provided  a girl  from  one  of  the  brothels,  having 
been  mindful,  not  of  their  tastes  only,  but  also  of 
their  lusts.  And  that  is  unhappily  no  exceptional  illus- 
tration of  an  ethical  behavior  that  has  been  too  com- 
mon in  our  impact  upon  the  non-Christian  world. 

And  our  civilization  itself  is  not  altogether  Chris- 
tian. We  see  in  it  here  at  home  radically  un-Christian 
elements.  Our  Lord  himself  is  not  Lord  yet  of  all 


Must  be  Christianized 


5 


our  corporate  and  organized  life;  and  just  so  far  as 
we  carry  our  civilization,  with  its-  mingled  good  and 
evil,  with  its  non-Christian  elements  tainting  and  de- 
filing its  Christian  elements  over  all  the  world,  just 
to  that  extent  is  our  impact  upon  the  East  non- 
Christian.  It  is  that  impact  which  must  be  Chris- 
tianized. 

Now,  in  the  second'place,  how  big  is  that  “must”? 
We  say  that  the  impact  of  the  West  upon  the  East 
must  be  Christianized.  How  deeply  do  we  feel  that? 
Why  must  it  be  Christianized?  It  must  be  Christian- 
ized, first  of  all,  because  if  it  is  necessary  for  every 
individual  to  be  a Christian  in  his  relationships  with 
others,  it  is  necessary  for  every  collection  of  indi- 
viduals to  be  Christians  in  their  relations  to  others. 
There  are  no  different  types  of  ethics,  some  for  the 
individual,  some  for  society,  some  for  the  nation  and 
some  for  the  race.  It  is  just  as  obligatory  for  the 
nation  and  the  race  to  do  right  as  it  is  for  the  in- 
dividual to  do  right,  and  to  do  right  is  to  be  a Chris- 
tian; to  live  up  to  Christian  principles,  to  Embody 
in  all  our  acts  and  relationships  the  ideals  and  the 
conception  = and  laws  and  spirit  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  We  are  bound  to  do  right  in  all  our  relation- 
ships with  the  East  as  nations  and  as  races,  just  be- 
cause we  are  bound  to  do  right  and  to  be  Christians 
as  individual  men. 

In  the  second  place,  our  impact  upon  the  East 
must  be  Christianized  because  we  are  moving  out  upon 
the  East  in  very  many  different  ways,  and  those  ways 
are  sure  steadily  to  increase.  Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd 
has  pointed  out  in  his  little  book  on  “The  Control 
of  the  Tropics”  that  the  efficient  nations  are  cer- 
tain to  move  out  over  all  the  world  that  is  oc- 
cupied by  the  inefficient  peoples  to  teach  those  in- 


6 The  Impact  of  the  West  Upon  the  East 


efficient  peoples  the  secrets  of  efficiency  and  the  lesson 
of  stewardship  of  life  and  in  life.  And  you  cannot 
separate  the  different  forms  in  which  that  movement 
of  the  West  upon  the  East  is  taking  place.  They  are 
all  of  them  inextricably  intertwined.  And  every  one 
of  them  is  bound  to  suffer  or  to  benefit  from  the  char- 
acter of  the  rest.  Christianity  is  sure  to  be  damaged 
in  its  pure  form  of  expression  'in  the  missionary  enter- 
prise by  everything  that  is  non-Christian  in  all  the 
other  forms  of  the  movement  of  the  West  upon  the 
non-Christian  world.  We  have  got  to  Christianize 
our  impact  from  the  West  upon  the  East  in  the  in- 
terest of  our  distinctively  missionary  propaganda. 

You  cannot  go  out  to  the  West  and  preach  one 
doctrine  to  it  by  the  lives  of  your  missionaries,  and 
another  doctrine  to  it  by  the  lives  of  your  merchants. 
You  cannot  go  out  to  the  East  and  without  great  dif- 
ficulty teach  it  a theoretical  message  which  is  not 
confirmed  in  the  actual  diplomacy  and  conduct  of  our 
Western  peoples.  In  the  interest  of  Christianity  and 
our  missionary  enterprise,  we  must  penetrate  with 
Christian  principle  all  those  forms  of  nnr  conduct  with 
the  non-Christian  world  with  which,  lor  good  or  ill, 
our  Christian  impact  is  inseparably  intertwined. 

But,  in  the  third  place,  we  must  Christianize  this 
impact  in  the  interest  of  the  impact  itself.  As  we 
look  back  across  the  years  we  see  that  just  in  propor- 
tion as  our  impact  upon  the  East  has  been  Christian, 
has  it  been  powerful  for  good.  Our  best  diplomacy 
has  been  the  diplomacy  which  we  have  exercised 
through  Christian  men.  We  never  had  happier  re- 
lations with  China  than  when  S.  Wells  Williams  was 
the  brain  and  soul  of  our  legation  in  Pekin.  And 
also  as  we  look  back  across  the  years  we  see  that 
our  commercial  and  diplomatic  relationship  with  the 


Must  be  Christianized 


7 


non-Christian  world  has  been  powerful  for  good  pre- 
cisely in  proportion  as  it  has  been  dominated  by  the 
Christian  principle.  We  see  that  our  impact  upon 
the  East  has  been  practically  impotent  save  as  Chris- 
tian principle  has  wrought  in  it  and  through  it.  It 
has  certainly  been  so  in  Africa  and  the  South  Sea 
Islands. 

There  is  a great  passage  in  James  Stewart’s  book, 
“Down  in  the  Dark  Continent,”  in  which  he  quotes 
James  Chalmers  as  setting  forth  a principle  that 
Stewart  said  he  had  seen  again  and  again  exemplified 
in  the  life  of  Africa.  Said  James  Chalmers : 

“1  have  never  seen  a savage  whom  civilization 
without  Christianity  had  succeeded  in  civilizing.”  As 
far  as  he  had  known  the  South  Sea  Islands,  what- 
ever uplift  of  life  had  been  there,  had  come  only  in 
so  far  as  Christianity  had  found  access  to  the  life 
of  these  peoples,  and  James  Stewart,  out  of  one  of 
the  largest  experiences  ever  given  to  any  man  in 
Africa,  has  borne  testimony  to  the  same  trutE  regard- 
ing the  Dark  Continent. 

And  we  can  go  farther  than  this ; it  is  not  only 
true  that  the  past  impact  of  the  West  upon  the  East 
has  been  largely  ineffective,  has,  indeed,  been  alto- 
gether impotent  for  good,  except  as  it  embodied 
Christian  principles — we  can  go  further  than  that  and 
say  that  so  far  as  it  has  not  embodied  Christian  prin- 
ciple it  has  been  positively  bad.  If  you  ask  me  for 
my  proof  I can  give  it  to  you  in  one  word,  Constanti- 
nople. Eor  generations  the  Western  civilization  has 
touched  the  Eastern  civilization  in  the  city  of  Con- 
stantinople, and  every  man  who  lives  in  Constantinople 
will  tell  you  what  the  result  has  been.  Dr.  H.  O. 
Dwight,  a long-time  resident  of  Constantinople,  has 
set  forth  the  facts  plainly  in  his  book,  “Constantinople 
and  Its  Problems.” 


8 The  Impact  of  the  West  Upon  the  East 


y^Civilization  represented  by  Western  commercial 
enterprise  and  isolated  from  religious  principle  has 
been  in  contact  with  the  people  of  Constantinople  for 
many,  many  years.  Since  the  Crimean  war  it  has  had 
untrammelled  sway.  Some  of  the  externals  of  en- 
vironment have  benefited  from  this  contact.  Indi- 
viduals may  sometimes  have  been  lifted  out  of  the 
quagmires  of  the  mass  of  the  population  by  glimpses 
of  what  manhood  really  is.  But  there  is  no  ques- 
tion as  to  the  general  result.  The  result  has  been  the 
moral  deterioration  of  the  city  and  the  strengthening 
of  the  repulsion  felt  by  Turks  toward  the  West.  One 
of  the  leading  Turkish  papers  of  Constantinople  dealt 
with  this  subject  not  long  ago.  It  said  that  the  one 
positive  influence  of  Western  civilization  is  against 
God  and  in  favor  of  drunkenness  and  debauchery.  It 
pointed  to  the  great  number  of  disorderly  houses  in 
Pera,  which  engulfed  and  destroyed  large  numbers 
of  Mohammedan  youth,  and  it  declared  in  open  terms 
that  the  family  life  of  Europeans  living  in  Pera  is 
such  as  to  lead  to  the  supposition  that  marital  fidelity 
is  not  known  there.  “We  want  none  of  this  Christian 
civilization,”  said  the  Turk- 

Save  in  so  far  as  our  Christianity  has  permeated 
our  Western  impact  upon  the  East,  that  impact  has 
been  positively  harmful  and  bad.  It  has  broken  down 
what  was  innocent  and  good;  it  has  destroyed  the 
moral  and  industrial  organization  of  old  societies,  and, 
save  as  in  some  measure  Christian  principles  have  been 
embodied  in  it,  it  has  been  a visibly  deteriorating  and 
destructive  power. 

In  the  fourth  place,  we  are  bound  to  Christianize 
the  impact  of  the  West  upon  the  East,  because  in- 
evitably that  impact  is  a religious  impact.  You  can- 
not have  any  impact  of  the  West  upon  the  East,  I 


Must  be  Christianized 


9 


do  not  care  how  you  think  you  are  secularizing  it, 
you  cannot  have  any  such  impact  that  is  not  dis- 
tinctively religious  alike  in  its  character  and  in  its 
results.  The  ideal  of  a religious  neutrality  is  a purely 
chimerical  idea.  You  cannot  have  such  a thing;  every 
man  is  either  for  God  or  against  God.  Every  man 
is  either  for  the  Gospel  of  Christ  or  against  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  And  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
non-religious  connection  between  two  men  or  nations, 
or  two  halves  of  the  world.  All  our  contact  with 
the  non-Christian  peoples  is  religiously  destructive. 
We  are  paralyzing  and  overthrowing  all  their  old 
systems  of  ethical  and  religious  belief.  We  are  do- 
ing that  even  if  we  do  not  send  a missionary  to  those 
shores,  and  we  are  bound  to  make  this  impact  of  the 
West  upon  the  East,  not  only  not  a destruc- 
tive impact,  but  also  a constructive  and  creative 
impact  for  good.  We  can  only  do  this  by  penetrating 
it  with  Christian  principle  and  with  Christian  love. 

And,  once  more,  we  are  bound  to  Christianize  our 
impact  upon  the  East  because  Christianity  is  the  only 
racially  unifying  bond.  You  cannot  unite  permanently 
dissimilar  races  by  any  commercial  institutes.  You 
cannot  bind  them  together  by  any  political  ties.  The 
whole  history  of  the  world  tells  us  that  the  only  uni- 
fying racial  bond  is  a great  common  religious  faith. 
England  is  able  to  govern  India  today  and  has  been 
able  to  hold  India  all  these  years,  because  India  has 
never  been  unified.  In  one  of  the  most  illuminating 
books  on  history  that  has  appeared  in  our  generation, 
I mean  Professor  Seeley’s  “Expansion  of  England,” 
one  of  the  best  books  we  have  on  the  American 
Revolution  and  on  Great  Britain’s  colonial  policy  in 
India,  Seeley  points  this  out  and  says  that  the  whole 
policy  of  Great  Britain  in  India  has  been,  and  must 


10  The  Impact  of  the  West  Upon  the  East 


be,  to  unify  the  masses  of  that  land,  because  only  by 
unifying  them  can  the  land  be  prepared  for  its  proper 
destination,  and  the  only  way,  he  goes  on  to  say,  in 
which  these  diverse  races  can  ever  be  unified  is  by 
giving  them  one  great  common  religious  hope  and 
faith.  Our  Christianity  is  the  only  permanently  har- 
monizing racial  or  national  bond,  and  we  are  bound  to 
Christianize  our  impact  upon  the  world,  because  we 
do  not  want  to  turn  this  world  into  a hell  of  antagonis- 
tic races. 

Sir  Alfred  Lyall,  in  his  “Asiatic  Studies,”  has 
set  forth  the  principle  which  I am  presenting. 

“It  is  impossible  not  to  admit  that  in  many  in- 
stances the  successful  propagation  of  a superior  or 
stronger  creed  has  been  favorable  to  political  amalga- 
mation, nor  can  there  be  any  doubt  of  the  intense 
fusing  power  that  belongs  to  a common  religion.  In 
our  day  the  decree  of  divorce  between  religion  and 
politics  has  been  made  absolute  by  the  judgment  of 
every  statesman,  above  all  for  Christian  rulers  in 
non-Christian  countries ; nevertheless,  the  religion  of 
the  Spaniards  was  a part  of  their  policy  in  the  New 
World,  and  this  of  course,  is  still  true  in  regard  to 
Mohammedans  everywhere.  There  have  been  many 
periods,  and  there  are  still  many  countries,  in  which 
an  army  composed  of  different  religious  sects  could 
hardly  hold  together.  And  it  is  certain  that  for  ages 
identity  of  religious  belief  has  been,  and  still  is  in 
many  parts  of  the  world,  one  of  the  strongest  guaran- 
tees of  combined  action  on  the  battlefield.  It  has  often 
shown  itself  far  more  effective,  as  a bond  of  union, 
than  territorial  patriotism ; it  has  even  summoned 
tribal  or  racial  antipathies,  and  its  advantages  as  a 
palliative  of  foreign  ascendancy  have  been  indisput- 
able. The  attitude  of  religious  neutrality  is  now 


Must  be  Christianized 


11 


manifestly  and  incontestibly  incumbent  on  all  civilized 
rulerships  over  an  alien  people ; it  is  a principle  that 
is  just,  right  and  politic;  but  there  is  nothing  in  its 
influence  that  makes  for  that  kind  of  assimilation 
which  broadens  the  base  of  dominion.  Religion  and 
intermarriage  are  the  bonds  that  amalgamate  or  isolate 
social  groups  all  the  world  over,  especially  in  Asia, 
and  their  influence  for  or  against  political  consolida- 
tion has  lost  very  little  of  its  efficiency  anywhere.” 

We  want  to  build  out  of  this  world  the  one  great 
brotherhood  of  the  family  of  God,  and  we  can  only 
do  that  by  penetrating  all  our  relationships  with  the 
non-Christian  world  with  the  principle  of  that  Gospel 
by  which  alone  the  world  can  ever  be  made  one.  The 
Western  impact  upon  the  East  must  be  Christianized, 
and  it  must  be  Christianized  upon  these  grounds. 

And  now,  finally,  how  can  it  be  Christianized  ? It 
can  be  Christianized,  first  of  all,  by  our  practicing 
Christianity  as  a nation,  just  as  we  practice  it  as  in- 
dividuals ; by  penetrating  all  of  our  relationships  with 
non-Christian  powers  with  the  Christian  principle  and 
the  Christian  spirit.  I was  handed  yesterday  by  one 
of  our  missionaries  from  Japan  a letter  from  a com- 
mon friend  of  ours  living  in  a great  city  in  Japan. 
I want  to  read  just  a part  of  this  letter,  because  it 
illustrates  more  vividly  than  anything  else  could  this 
first  form  in  which  we  are  to  Christianize  our  impact 
upon  the  East : 

“I  want  to  write  you  a word  about  international 
relations.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  certain  degree 
of  alienation  between  Japan  and  America  that  has 
come  to  exist  in  the  past  few  years  has  an  unfavor- 
able influence  upon  Christian  work  in  Japan.  It  is 
also  within  the  range  of  possibility  that  if  the  agita- 
tion is  kept  up  war  may  eventually  come.  The  diplo- 


12  The  Impact  of  the  West  Upon  the  East 


matic  relations  even  novir,  I have  good  reason  for 
saying,  are  delicate.  Such  an  event,  as  we  all  realize, 
would  be  an  unspeakable  calamity,  both  from  the  stand- 
point of  religion  and  of  humanity.  The  East  and  the 
West  are  bound  to  come  closely  together  during  this 
century,  but  all  is  at  stake  in  their  coming  together 
peacefully  and  sympathetically. 

“Now  it  seems  to  me  that  if  in  some  way  the 
Christian  element  of  the  population  of  America  could 
at  this  time  make  itself  more  strongly  felt  in  reference 
to  this  question  it  would  be  eminently  fortunate.  It 
is  quite  possible  to  restrict  immigration  into  America 
in  an  amicable  way,  I believe.  The  essential  thing  is 
that  the  Japanese  nation  be  not  treated  as  an  inferior 
race;  that  the  nation’s  honor  be  not  infringed  upon. 
It  is  clear  in  all  diplomatic  negotiations  commercial 
interests  are  kept  in  mind.  It  seems  to  me  not  only 
worthy  of,  but  right  for  the  government  of  a 
civilized  nation  to  take  the  missionary  problem  into 
consideration  also — that  is,  to  be  extremely  careful  to 
avoid,  if  possible,  doing  anything  that  will  hinder  the 
Christianization  of  these  great  Eastern  nations. 
Rather  special  effort  should  be  made  to  show  the 
Christian  spirit,  and  to  help  and  also  to  receive  help. 
Comparatively  speaking,  America  has  not  a bad  record 
in  this  respect,  but  as  she  becomes  more  imperialistic 
there  is  more  danger. 

Then,  as  to  the  question  whether  Japan  is  true  to 
her  pledges  on  the  subject  of  the  open  door  in  Man- 
churia and  the  integrity  of  China,  it  is  specially  neces- 
sary that  really  competent  observation  be  made.  We 
all  know  how  easy  it  is  for  a man  to  get  into  a 
certain  atmosphere  here  in  the  East  in  which  he  can 
see  absolutely  no  good  in  the  Japanese,  and  in  which 
only  suspicion  and  mistrust  and  misrepresentation  pre« 


Must  be  Christianized 


13 


vail,  and  when  a man  with  such  a bias  makes  a re- 
port one  can  imagine  the  result.  It  is  difficult  to  stop 
foolish  and  wicked  war  talk  on  the  part  of  the  news- 
papers and  individuals,  and  also  to  restrain  anti- 
Japanese  agitation  on  the  west  coast,  but  there  is  at 
least  the  influence  of  public  sentiment  that  can  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  situation.” 

Now,  what  I mean  is  this:  We  have  a right  to 
demand  that  the  attitude  of  this  nation  towards  every 
nuu-Christian  nation  should  be  a Christian  attitude. 
The  idea  of  war  between  the  American  people  and 
any  Asiatic  people  is  preposterous.  There  are  no  pos- 
sible conflicts  in  sight  that  justify  us  in  any  other 
attitude  towards  the  whole  non-Christian  world  than 
an  attitude  of  sympathy  and  brotherhood  and  peace. 
And  we  are  bound  to  practice  in  our  national  rela- 
tions with  all  of  these  nations  the  same  spirit  of  re- 
straint, of  generous  confidence  in  another’s  good  will, 
of  unselfish  regard  for  another’s  interest  which  we  re- 
gard ourselves  as  under  obligations  to  practice  in 
our  relationship  one  to  another  as  Christian  men. 
Our  newspapers  should  realize  this  , and  behave  with 
decency.  That  is  the  first  thing. 

In  the  second  place,  we  can  do  it  by  making  sure 
that  the  men  who  go  out  to  represent  this  country  in 
commerce  and  in  trade  really  represent  that  which 
is  best  and  truest  in  this  land.  The  Government  is 
not  to  go  into  the  business  of  religious  propagandizing. 

But  this  country  is  a Christian  country.  We  have 
the  judgment  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
written  by  the  late  lamented  Justice  Brewer,  the 
highest  possible  authority  there  could  be  in  this  land, 
for  declaring  that  the  United  States  is  not  a non- 
religious nation;  that  the  United  States  is  a Christian 
nation.  We  have  a duty  to  seek  to  make  sure  that 


14  The  Impact  of  the  West  Upon  the  East 


all  that  goes  out  from  this  nation  to  the  rest  of  the 
world,  whether  politically  or  commercially,  should 
justly  represent  the  true  character  of  our  people. 
It  is  not  a right  thing,  for  example,  to  send  a man 
who  drinks  freely  to  represent  us  at  a Moslem  court. 
There  have  been  in  the  past  great  bodies  of  noble 
men  who  have  gone  out  to  represent  the  Western 
nations  to  the  Eastern  world.  A long  list  of  those 
names  at  once  suggests  itself  to  us — men  like 
Chinese  Gordon,  and  John  and  Henry  Lawrence,  and 
Herbert  Edwardes,  and  Townsend  Harris,  and  Com- 
modore Perry — and  the  list  might  be  indefinitely  multi- 
plied of  statesmen  and  merchants  who  carried  their 
Christian  character  with  them  and  who,  wherever 
they  were  and  in  all  that  they  did,  stood  unabashed 
but  faithful  as  Christian  men.  We  can  Christianize 
the  impact  of  the  West  upon  the  East  by  making  sure 
that  that  kind  of  man  goes  out  to  represent  us 
there. 

In  the  third  place,  we  must  do  it  by  Christianiz- 
ing our  trade.  A great  many  of  our  Western  busi- 
ness men  are  out-aged  today  because  Japan  is  stealing 
our  Western  trade  marks,  because  Japan  is  dis- 
criminating in  favor  of  her  own  merchants  wherever 
she  is  able  to  do  so.  In  what  school  did  Japan  learn 
those  lessons?  We  cannot  expect  to  conduct  our 
trade  with  the  East  upon  non-Christian  principles, 
and  then  have  the  East  turn  the  other  cheek  to  us 
and  practice  Christian  principles  in  trade  with  us. 
We  are  bound  to  carry  on  our  trade  with  other  nations 
on  a Christian  basis ; I mean  with  honesty,  and  with 
unselfishness  and  a desire  for  mutual  helpfulness  and 
good. 

In  the  fourth  place,  we  can  do  it  by  Christianiz- 
ing our  educational  impact.  When  these  young  men 


Must  be  Christianized 


15 


come  over  from  Asia  to  study  in  our  own  schools,  as 
they  are  coming  by  the  hundreds,  we  can  make  sure 
that  they  receive  a Christian  education  here.  The 
university,  whether  it  be  a private  university  or  a 
State  university,  that  educates  in  pure  secularism  a 
young  man  who  comes  here  from  the  East  to  study 
in  our  schools,  and  sends  him  back  with  the  idea  that 
human  culture  is  possible  without  religious  faith,  is 
an  enemy  to  the  good  of  the  world  and  to  the  right 
relations  between  the  Western  and  the  Eastern 
nations.  We  are  bound  to  Christianize  not  only  our 
educational  impact  upon  the  East  when  it  comes  to 
the  West,  but  we  are  bound  to  do  it  when  we  carry 
that  educational  impact  out  to  the  East.  If  we  seek 
to  benefit  the  nations,  we  must  beware  how  we  lay 
up  peril  for  the  generations  that  are  to  come  after 
us ; we  must  make  sure  that  the  education  by  which 
we  seek  to  benefit  the  world  is  given,  and  that  the 
larger  power  which  it  brings  is  held  under  the  con- 
straints of  a loyal  and  simple  and  true-*hearted  re- 
ligious faith.  We  are  bound  to  Christianize  our  edu- 
cational impact  upon  the  world. 

And,  last  of  all,  we  must  reitierrtber  that  it  is 
by  our  national  conduct  and  our  national  character 
that  we  are  evangelizing  the  world,  as  truly  as  by 
the  missionaries  whom  we  send  ten  thousand  miles 
away  to  represent  us  there.  You  cannot  escape  from 
the  evangelization  of  national  example.  Again  and 
again  we  have  seen  the  results  of  it.  j The  Iwakura 
Embassy,  that  forty  years  ago  went  out  from  Japan, 
came  to  the  West  and  visited  us  and  Europe  and  re- 
turned, and  men  in  that  embassy  went  back  with  the 
supreme  idea  that  what  Japan  needed  was  the  Chris- 
tian gospel,  and  the  Christian  home,  and  they  got  that 
idea  from  Christian  men  and  the  Christian  homes 


16  The  Impact  of  the  West  Upon  the  East 


with  which  they  had  been  in  contact  here  in  the 
Western  lands.  I.  was  interested  in  noting  in  a 
Japanese  paper  the  other  day  the  impression  of  the 
different  members  of  the  Japanese  Embassy  that  came 
here  representing  the  business  men  of  Japan  only  last 
year.  Four  of  the  men  who  gave  their  impressions 
spoke  of  the  attitude  of  the  American  people  to- 
wards women  as  the  one  thing  that  most  supremely 
impressed  them  here.  Thank  God  there  are  elements 
of  good  in  our  Western  life,  which,  when  Eastern 
men  come  in  contact  with  them,  bear  faithful  testi- 
mony to  the  Christian  principles  of  our  gospel. 

But  you  remember  how  the  Gaekwar  of  Baroda 
went  back  to  India,  where  he  is  one  of  the  leading 
men  of  the  land,  with  a radically  different  opinion 
of  our  Western  life,  proclaiming  to  the  people  of  India 
that  they  had  only  one  thing  to  learn  from  the  West, 
and  that  was  its  secret  of  industrial  power,  Its  ability 
to  produce  wealth,  and  that  that  was  the  only  con- 
tribution the  West  had  to  make  to  the  non-Christian 
world.  We  must  beware  of  the  gospel  we  are  preach- 
ing by  day  and  by  night,  by  what  we  are  as  a nation. 

We  come  home  here  to  the  great  home  missionary 
obligation,  the  duty  of  making  this  land  of  ours  a 
Christian  land,  in  order  that  by  what  we  are,  as  well 
as  by  what  we  say,  we  may  convey  our  gospel  to  the 
whole  world.  I know  that  there  are  men  who  say 
that  there  cannot  be  any  such  thing  as  a Christian 
nation.  I have  a good  friend  with  whom  I have  been 
carrying  on  a correspondence  as  to  what  the  funda- 
mental missionary  motive  is.  and  in  his  last  letter 
he  said  he  did  not  think  it  was  possible  to  say  that 
there  would  or  could  be  any  such  thing  as  Christian 
nations.  I suppose  he  meant  that  Christianity  is  a 
matter  of  the  individual  relationship  with  God.  Well, 


Must  be  Christianized 


17 


I have  no  doubt  there  is  a great  truth  there,  but  can 
there  be  any  such  thing  as  a Christian  home,  or  a 
Christian  family?  May  I and  my  little  children  not 
know  ourselves  to  be  one  in  a corporate  family 
Christian  life  that  is  as  really  Christian  as  the  rela- 
tion which  binds  each  of  us  to  the  gospel  of  God,  the 
Father  of  us  all?  There  can  be  such  things  as  Chris- 
tian families.  And  if  there  are  Christian  families, 
why  cannot  there  be  groups  of  Christian  families  mak- 
ing Christian  communities,  and  if  there  can  be  Chris- 
tian communities,  there  can  be  many  Christian  com- 
munities, there  can  be  Christian  lands. 

When  the  Lord  taught  his  disciples  to  pray, 
“Thy  Kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done,  on  earth 
as  it  is  in  Heaven,”  he  surely  meant  that  it  was  to 
be  done  by  families,  by  communities,  by  nations,  as 
well  as  by  individual  men.  The  kingdom  of  God  was 
a kingdom  in  which  in  all  their  corporate  relations, 
in  all  their  racial  ties,  men  fulfilled  the  will  of  our 
Father  Who  is  in  Heaven.  Nations  have  no  right  to 
live  except  as  they  fulfil  that  law.  There  dare  not 
be  in  that  Kingdom  of  God  any  nations  that  are  not 
Christian.  There  is  no  contact  of  any  Western  nation 
with  other  nations  which  dare  be  other  than  a Chris- 
tian contact.  There  is  no  impact  open  to  it  upon  the 
Eastern  world  which  is  not  a Christian  impact.  We 
are  given  this  gospel  that  it  may  make  us,  one  by 
one,  individually  the  followers  of  the  King  of  all  the 
earth.  We  are  given  it  also  that  it  may  be  the  basis 
of  all  our  family  and  our  corporate  and  our  national 
life,  and  it  must  find  utterance  in  all  the  outgoing  of 
our  effort  and  our  sympathy  toward  the  non-Christian 
world. 

And  I am  not  sure  that  after  all  this  may  not 
prove  to  be  one  point  where  great  emphasis  needs  now 


18  The  Impact  of  the  West  Upon  the  East 


to  be  laid.  It  is  futile  for  us  to  hope  that  with  a 
little  band  of  individuals  sent  out  over  the  world  we 
can  preach  to  the  world  the  gospel  of  peace,  if  in 
all  of  our  organized  national  life  in  the  West  we  are 
preaching  the  gospel  of  strife.  It  is  futile  to  hope 
that  a little  band  of  men,  however  much  they  may 
attempt  to  isolate  themselves  from  the  national  and 
racial  life  out  of  which  they  came,  can  preach  to  the 
world  the  gospel  of  love,  if  in  our  corporate  and  na- 
tional life  we  are  preaching  the  gospel  of  selfishness 
and  of  distrust.  It  is  futile  to  hope  that  we  can  send 
to  all  the  world  the  message  of  the  love  of  God  in 
Christ,  by  those  who  go  out  to  represent  our  Chris- 
tian churches,  if  we  are  preaching  to  the  world  by 
other  tongues,  tongues  so  loud  that  they  almost  drown 
the  still  small  voice  of  the  missionary  enterprise, 
a message  of  hate  and  discord  and  the  waste  of  life. 
And  it  is  in  our  hands  to  determine  whether  or  not 
now,  at  last,  not  by  one  single  expression,  by  the  out- 
going of  one  separated  body  of  men,  but  by  the  whole 
impact  of  our  Christian  nations  upon  the  non-Chris- 
tian world,  we  shall  commend  to  all  mankind  that 
one  God  who  is  the  Father  of  every  race — Anglo- 
Saxon,  Japanese,  Chinese,  Hindu  and  African — and 
who  would  draw  together  in  one,  in  the  only  way 
in  which  they  can  ever  be  drawn  together  in  one, 
namely,  in  the  gospel  of  His  Son,  all  those  races  of 
men  whom  he  made  of  one  blood  and  whom  he 
would  bind  in  one  brotherhood. 


y 

y 


V 


